The country shouldn't have a system in which powers are taken away from local councils and given to regional councils or the central government itself, PN Spokesperson for local government Darren Carabott told the Malta Independent

He spoke during an interview with this media house. Part of the interview focusing on the Public Accounts Committee, which he chairs, was published in The Malta Independent on Sunday.

"We shouldn't have a system in which powers are taken from local governments, given to regions or the central government itself, as we are approaching a system in which someone who has a minor issue in their street, such as a lightbulb not working, something to do with street cleansing or road infrastructure issues, are going to the minister instead of going to their local government - the mayor or local councillors.”

One would need to go to the minister to get something they have a right to, he said. "Its the 'proset' and grazzi ministru mentality' (the well done and thank you minister mentality) unfortunately. Instead of pushing towards having people elected to local government deciding on certain matters which need local attention. You wouldn't want to wait in line with all of Malta to get a service."

"We need real local governments," he said.

Carabott said he had 9 years of experience in local government. "The system wasn't perfect back then, but it was a decentralised system where local councils could decide on certain enforcement matters."

He said that local councils were responsible for cleansing, garbage collection, street lighting, road infrastructure, local wardens. "Nowadays what I just mentioned is not their responsibility."

In December, the PN published proposals on local government, he said. "Mainly its about giving responsibilities and powers back to local governments," he said.

"We had a supposed revamp a few years ago by the Labour government, in which one of the changes was in the name from local councils to local government. But do people actually believe that we have local governments? Because what we have is a local customer care agency which just puts forward complaints either to regions (regional councils) or to public entities, instead of taking action themselves because they can't."

He said that this is not about being 'blue or red'. "We now have Labour Party mayors saying that they are not being heard, the system doesn't work."

He said that the way things are going people are losing confidence in the system, "and that is a big problem as participation in a democracy is important, and we ultimately need people who want to work. This is not just pushing back people from voting, but it is pushing people back from contesting for local government elections."

He said that Malta is already at a stage where taking a step forward into politics is considered to be a bad decision. "Instead of improving the system in local governments, we are making it even worse and we are discouraging people from taking the next step to get things done."

"Seeing the way the system was ten years ago, and i'm not saying it was perfect, but it was far better and local governments had more say than they have nowadays."

Interview with Darren Carabott